Simply Piano is the most engaging piano app for kids in month one, and the most disappointing by month six. It uses your phone’s microphone to listen to your child play, wraps everything in Duolingo-style gamification, and genuinely gets reluctant practicers to the keyboard. The catch: it teaches shallow habits that do not transfer to real playing. Here’s the honest verdict from a piano teacher who has watched kids use it for years.
- Simply Piano is brilliant at engagement. Terrible at actual piano pedagogy.
- Best used as a short-term motivator, not a long-term teacher.
- Family plan costs $23.90 a month or $209.99 a year. Not cheap for what it teaches.
- Children under 7 struggle with the microphone reliability and the pacing.
- Most kids who start with Simply Piano cannot read music, keep rhythm without the app, or play pieces outside the app’s library after six months.
- Hoffman Academy free is a better long-term teacher for most children.
Simply Piano is made by JoyTunes and is probably the most downloaded piano app in the world. It is polished, fun, and genuinely good at getting reluctant kids to practise. It is also the app I get the most parent complaints about, six months in, when the child who was excited in week two has quietly stopped playing. Here’s what is going on, and whether you should use it.
What Simply Piano actually is
Simply Piano is an interactive app that uses your phone or tablet’s microphone to “listen” to your child play a real acoustic piano or keyboard. It analyses what the microphone hears, tells the child whether they played the right notes, and moves them through a curriculum of song-based lessons. The interface is gorgeous. The song library is huge. The gamification loop is addictive in a good way for the first few weeks.
Simply Piano was designed for adult beginners first, then retrofitted for a family audience. That is the tension at the core of everything I am about to tell you.
What Simply Piano does brilliantly
Let me give credit where it’s due. The first month on Simply Piano is genuinely delightful. Your 7 year old will want to play it. That is not a small thing. Getting reluctant practicers to the keyboard is half the battle for most families, and Simply Piano solves that better than any other product on the market.
Where Simply Piano wins
- The most engaging onboarding experience of any piano app
- Microphone audio recognition feels magical for kids
- Large song library including pop hits kids actually recognise
- Clean, polished interface that never feels clunky
- Instant feedback keeps practice sessions moving
- Family plan covers up to 5 profiles, good for multiple kids
- Works on phones and tablets, no special hardware required
Where Simply Piano falls short
- Teaches note accuracy only, not rhythm or expression
- Microphone sometimes mishears notes and falsely penalises the child
- No real sight reading, just following on-screen note prompts
- No ear training, theory stays at a very basic level
- Habits built in Simply Piano do not transfer to sheet music
- Family plan costs $23.90/mo or $209.99/yr, not cheap
- No live feedback, no teacher, no performance goal
The core problem with Simply Piano for kids
Simply Piano teaches your child to match notes to on-screen prompts. That feels like piano for a while. Then your child tries to play a piece from a real piano book and realises they do not actually know how to read music. They have been pattern-matching, not reading. The app has been holding their hand without them knowing it.
This is the tripwire I warn parents about. Week one through four on Simply Piano is magical. Week five through ten is when you notice your child can only play the songs the app has taught them, and only while the app is running. Week eleven is when they get bored and quit. Your child did not fail. The app failed them by skipping the foundations.
The things Simply Piano does not teach properly are the things that turn “plays the notes” into “plays piano.” Rhythm. Touch. Phrasing. Expression. Reading real notation. Understanding a key signature. Hearing a melody and finding it on the keyboard. None of these are in the app’s main curriculum because the core design is built around the microphone feedback loop, not around building a musician.
If you already bought Simply Piano and your child loves it, don’t cancel. Use it as a 5 minute warm-up to get them to the keyboard, then spend 10 minutes on something that actually teaches piano, like Hoffman Academy’s free lessons or a real beginner method book. That combination works much better than Simply Piano alone.
Is Simply Piano worth the money?
Not at $23.90 a month for the family plan, no. Not when Hoffman Academy has 300+ free lessons that actually teach piano properly for children. The exception is if engagement is your single biggest problem. If your child refuses to practise anything and will happily spend 20 minutes on Simply Piano, then the subscription might be worth it as a short-term motivator to rebuild the habit.
Even then, I would use Simply Piano for one month only. Get the habit back. Then switch to something that teaches piano properly. Paying $23.90 a month indefinitely for a motivator is the most expensive way to solve that problem.
Simply Piano vs the alternatives for kids
| Simply Piano | Hoffman Academy (free) | Piano Marvel | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designed for kids | No, adults first | Yes, specifically | No, but works for older |
| Teaches real reading | Barely | Yes | Yes |
| Engagement for young kids | Very high | Medium | Low |
| Cost (family) | $23.90/mo | Free | $15.99/mo |
| Transfers to real piano | Limited | Yes | Yes |
For most families, Hoffman Academy’s free tier is a better piano teacher than Simply Piano’s paid one. Full context in my guide to the best online piano lessons for kids.
Who should actually use Simply Piano?
Good fit: An adult beginner who wants to learn a few specific pop songs quickly. The app’s gamification genuinely works for adults, and the shallow habits matter less when the goal is just “play some recognisable tunes.”
Good fit: A reluctant child aged 8 to 12 who needs a motivator for a month to rebuild the practice habit, as a bridge back to a real curriculum.
Bad fit: A 5 or 6 year old. The microphone is unreliable at this age because small hands play quieter notes. The frustration of being falsely told you played a wrong note builds up fast.
Bad fit: A committed child who wants to actually learn piano properly. They deserve a real curriculum.
Bad fit: A parent trying to keep piano lesson costs low. Simply Piano family plan at $23.90/mo is actually one of the most expensive app subscriptions out there. The free alternatives teach better.
The dirty secret about microphone-based piano apps
Here is something most reviews skip. Microphone-based audio recognition sounds amazing but has real limits. In a noisy house, the mic picks up background sound and mishears notes. On a quiet keyboard with unweighted keys, the mic struggles to detect soft notes. When your 6 year old plays a note a bit hesitantly, the app sometimes says “wrong note” when it was the right note played weakly.
These false negatives are demoralising for children. They played the note correctly, the app said they did not, they get confused, they try again, it happens twice more, they quit. I have watched this exact sequence play out with families dozens of times. It is not a bug you can train your child around. It is the limit of the technology.
A live teacher never does this. A live teacher sees the wrist angle, hears the intent, understands context. The microphone does not.
The verdict on Simply Piano
Simply Piano is excellent at one thing: getting a reluctant child to the keyboard. That is a real value, especially for families whose biggest problem is motivation. But it is not a good piano teacher, and using it as your only source of piano learning will leave your child with shallow habits that do not transfer to real playing.
If your budget is zero, use Hoffman Academy free instead. If your child needs engagement, use Simply Piano for one month as a bridge then switch. If your child needs to actually learn piano properly, find a live teacher, whether that is in-person, live 1:1 on Zoom, or a structured online group course.
Simply Piano is a beautifully packaged tripwire. Know that going in, use it on purpose, and don’t rely on it alone.
Frequently asked questions
Is Simply Piano good for kids?
It is engaging for kids but shallow as a teacher. Children enjoy using it in the short term but most do not build real piano skills that transfer outside the app. Good as a 1 month motivator, not recommended as a long-term piano teacher for children.
How much does Simply Piano cost?
The family plan (up to 5 profiles) costs $23.90 a month or $209.99 a year. There is also a 14-day free trial. It is one of the more expensive piano app subscriptions.
Is Simply Piano better than Hoffman Academy for kids?
No. Hoffman Academy is free for its core curriculum and was built specifically for children. Simply Piano is more engaging on day one but Hoffman teaches piano more thoroughly. For most families Hoffman Academy free is the better choice for children. Full breakdown in my Hoffman Academy review.
What age is Simply Piano best for?
Probably ages 9 to 14 at a stretch, and even then only as a supplement. Children under 7 struggle with the microphone reliability. Children 7 to 11 get good engagement but shallow learning. The app was designed with adults in mind.
Does Simply Piano actually teach you to read music?
Barely. It teaches on-screen pattern matching that resembles reading but does not build proper sight reading skills. Children who use Simply Piano alone typically cannot pick up a standard beginner piano book and read from it, even after months of “lessons.”
Can Simply Piano replace a real piano teacher?
No, particularly for children. A real teacher watches your child’s hands, corrects posture, teaches musicality, and gives your child someone to play for. Simply Piano can do none of these things. For live teaching at a reasonable price, a live group course or private 1:1 Zoom lessons are much better paths.
Is the Simply Piano free trial enough to decide?
Probably, yes. The 14 day trial shows you the engagement side of the app, which is its main selling point. What the trial cannot show you is whether the habits stick. That only becomes clear after 2 to 3 months when the novelty wears off.
What’s the best alternative to Simply Piano for kids?
Hoffman Academy free if your budget is zero. A live group course or live 1:1 lessons if you want a real teacher. Piano Marvel if your child is 8+ and loves scoring. Full comparison in my guide to the best online piano lessons for kids.